The new head coach at Bloomfield Hills High School is a volleyball veteran who's been around the circuit.

Wyatt last year worked at Royal Oak Shrine and, prior to that, established the men's and women's volleyball programs at Lawrence Tech University. He has coached junior college, club teams and high school squads — Livonia Ladywood, Bloomfield Hills Lahser and Fraser — in a fruitful career that has spanned more than 20 years.

He was founder and director at Michigan Elite VBC and currently works at the United Volleyball Club in Waterford.

Needless to say, Wyatt brings a wealth of knowledge to a Bloomfield Hills program that was led by an equally learned head coach in Bob Hurdle, who resigned earlier this year because of medical reasons.

"This is great. Everything about the facility, the kids, the administration ... everything is great," Wyatt said. "My wife (Mary) very much encouraged me to go for this job. I had a couple players I knew from the club who let me know that this job was open."

A bundle of energy

Wyatt, a 1987 Redford Thurston graduate, was a bundle of energy in a recent scrimmage against West Bloomfield.

"Right play! Right play!" he hollered to junior Alivia Slazinski, who had just executed a sterling slam down the right sideline after a crisp set-up by junior captain Alexa Rousseau. Wyatt charged out and slapped a high-five with Slazinski.

"We just gotta get going. We stopped making plays" and "Let's go. Too many errors," were some of the other directives he yelled out to the squad during the late-afternoon action.

"I thought our ball control and serve-receive was really good," Wyatt said about the preseason scrimmage. "I felt like we controlled tempo very well and I thought we played in control the whole time out. It was our first time out, but I was happy. We'll get better the more we practice."

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Bloomfield Hills junior captain Alexa Rousseau is a 6-foot-3 setter who already has committed to play volleyball at Northwestern.(Photo: Bill Bresler | hometownlife.com)

Hurdle's squad finished with a strong 36-12 record last season, finishing 4-3 in the highly-competitive Oakland Activities Association Red Division.

Wyatt takes over a young, but talented, squad of one senior, eight juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen.

Rousseau is team leader

The unquestioned team leader is Rousseau, a southpaw setter who stands at an atypical 6-foot-3 and consistently places the ball in the right spot for the team's hitters. Rousseau, a three-year varsity veteran, received her first college offer as an eighth-grader at East Hills Middle School and is now committed to play at Northwestern.

"I've been doing this for 30 years and this is the first time I've had a setter that tall," Wyatt said of Rousseau's height. "It's a unique situation and, obviously, we utilize her a lot. She blocks from the middle and she sets all six rotations and she scores a lot in both serving and in hitting, too.

"When players have more and more experience, they play the game in advance. Rather than reacting to the game, they're ahead of the game. And that's probably her biggest strength — she's always ahead of the game.

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Outside hitter Ava Petrucci is a talented freshman who is on track to start for the Bloomfield Hills varsity.(Photo: Bill Bresler | hometownlife.com)

"As she rolls, we will roll," he added. "And us our other hitters emerge, we'll be even better and better and better."

"I think our setting and blocking will be the main strengths of this team," Wyatt said. "And then our serve-receive should be good. And as we get better in our hitting, we're going to be really good team.

"I think we can contend. Our goal is to contend in the OAA Red and we want to do well in the state tournament. I think we have the personnel and the fact we have so many juniors, I think we can go on a two-year run here.

"Long term, we hope to plug and play and be good and stay good," he added. "We got the facilities. We have the athletes. We have the coaches. It's really, really a great situation and I'm very excited to coach here."

Contact Marty Budner at mbudner@hometownlife.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MartyBudner.